NH BRIDGES Classroom Materials home page

N.B.: These Web pages were not produced by an
agency of the State of New Hampshire. They are here as a public
service and attempt to accurately reflect material received through a
"Right to Know" petition sent to Nancy Rollins, the current director
of the Division of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF).

Overview

NH BRIDGES is a database system used to track information about
DCYF cases. Information is entered by DCYF case workers and several
other state agencies. Medical and welfare information is also in the
database. In general, the information collected tends to be "red
flag" items. If the State paid for mental health counseling, that
fact may well be recorded. If you are the coach of a Odyssey of the
Mind team, it most likely is not.

As you read through the scenarios below, keep track of the strength of
the evidence against the parents, how it is recorded, and how the system is
laced with a presumption of guilt.

Classroom Materials - Table of Contents

N.B. These pages were created by scanning the Classroom Materials and
extracting text via OCR. It has been reformatted to fit typical WWW pages.
Several graphic elements have been omitted. The goal here is to give
readers an understanding of what NH BRIDGES is and how it is used by DCYF.
This is not a substitute for the real training materials.

Not all sections have been scanned. Some
more may be done, many will not. The most interesting parts of the
document are the scenarios. The mechanics of entering data are most
useful to users of the database, but some of the choices presented are
interesting and show what information is collected.

Despite the reformatting, the text is as close to the original as possible,
including some questionable wording, punctuation, etc. Ecept for navigation
links, nothing has been added, nothing has been deliberately changed or lost.

Record Retention Period

Late in 2001, a joint NH house and senate committee was formed as part of
legislation the year before (SB 123, Chapter 99:2, Laws of 2001) to
"study how individual's information is obtained and maintained by the
Division of Children, Youth, and Families."

DCYF reports that they retain records for:

one year for intake info

three years for unfounded complaints

seven years for founded complaints.

However, NH Bridges has been operational for less than three years, and
they have yet to implement functions to discard expired information.
[Umm, is this true? these pages were put together more than three years
ago after Bridges became operational. We need to look into that.]

This is consistant with state law that refers to the Central Registry, a
separate database maintained by DCYF:

Section 169-C:35 Central Registry.
There shall be established a state registry
of abuse and neglect reports made pursuant to this chapter at the
department for the purpose of maintaining a record of information on each
case of alleged abuse or neglect reported. The registry shall be
confidential and subject to the rules on access established by the
commissioner of the department under RSA 541-A. Upon receipt by the
department of a written request and verified proof of identity, an
individual shall be informed by the department whether that individual's
name is listed in the founded reports maintained in the central
registry. Founded reports shall be retained for 7 years. Unfounded at-risk
reports shall be retained for 3 years.

The Division is currently interpreting these numbers as minimums, not as
requirements to destroy after a certain period of time. If they never
change their computer programs, they'll still be in compliance. Actually,
there's nothing in RSA 169-C:35 that refers explicitly to NH Bridges
anyway and therefore it may not even apply.

They didn't
destroy records when the records were paper, (and I have proof) and I'm
sure if there is no change in the law, they won't change their computer
programs to destroy records either.

How can this be?

DCYF reiterated the limited access people have to Bridges data. They also
said they are not staffed on weekends. My interest in NH Bridges was piqued
by Concord Hospital Emergency Room Admission form on a Saturday night
admission. My client obtained the records straight from
the hospital, and NOT from DCYF, and studied them for hours and hours and
days and days. She finally realized that the stray number at the top of
the ER record page referred to an old report on her ex husband. Which is
how her name was input into the system without her knowledge. Which
probably caused concern among the ER staff, resulting in an immediate call
to police concerning her child's injury.

In that case, the Division obtained legal custody of her
child at the preliminary hearing (in violation of the statute) so she
couldn't easily obtain medical opinions that she desperately needed
for defense. DCYF, by controlling the kid, controlled the evidence.

In another 1996 case, DCYF kept telling the judge that they had
"concerns" about the parent not charged with abuse, but refused to
specify what their "concerns" were. The judge unceremoniously refused
to give custody to the fit parent despite his repeated requests to do
so. That practice has since been held unconstitutional by the NH
Supreme Court, although the courts apparently are ignoring the
decision, from my experience in practice.

In a 2002 case, I found an entire
application for state welfare aid, via the New HEIGHTS data base in the
DCYF file. These matters are supposed to be protected by federal privacy
laws.

Assume DCYF knows every contact you've had with the state

Matters get worse when you realize that not only are day care records
available to DCYF, but medical records, probably diagnoses codes, medical
histories in the form of medicaid payments to providers, etc. are probably
there for the taking by DCYF.

When you consider that evidence of payments to providers of psychological
providers is also available, possibly along with diagnoses codes, the
ability to DCYF to collect otherwise confidential information far surpasses
the ability any other private or government agency to have access to
records protected by federal privacy statutes.

Are you in NH Bridges?

If you have children or come in contact with children, you could well be.
RSA 170-G:8-a gives you the right to access
your records. Refer to that law and
ask for a copy of all records about you in NH Bridges. If you suspect
you may be listed in the Central Registry, ask about that too.